Pagi hari ini saya membaca di koran Kompas bahwa pemerintah Saudi Arabia
menolak untuk membayar uang tebusan kepada para perompak Somalia, dan bahwa
kelompok Muslim bersenjata di Somalia marah dan akan menyerang perompak karena
mereka berani membajak kapal Muslim. (Kompas Sabtu 28 Nov 2008 hlm 8).Berarti
bukan hanya China dan Russia yang terkenal tak pernah mau menyerah kepada
tuntutan pembajak atau teroris, dan memilih serbuan pasukan komando daripada
menyerah kepada tuntutan pembajak. Oh ya satu lagi, Israel juga demikian.
Dan sekarang, Pemerintah Saudi Arabia juga menunjukkan kemarahannya dan
keberaniannya untuk melawan tuntutan perompak.Baguslah itu. Dan dugaan saya
tentang orang Arab ini ternyata salah. Saya lebih mementingkan kebenaran fakta
daripada dugaan belaka. Saya tidak malu mengakui kesalahan pendapat saya
bilamana itu tak sesuai dengan kenyataan.Sebagai orang yang berpikir tentu kita
boleh saja memiliki dugaan dan teori, namun ketika dugaan kita salah, apakah
yang lain berani mengakuinya secara terbuka? Saya sudah melakukannya disini.
Bagaimana dengan anda?
--- On Fri, 11/21/08, rizal lingga <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: rizal lingga <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [lintas-iman] Somalia's Pirates
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Friday, November 21, 2008, 11:05 PM
I hope that someday these Somalia pirates will hijack Chinese's
ships of China, or Russia's ships. And in that day the Government
of China will refuse to bargain with these pirates, and these
pirates will kill those Chinese's sailors. And what will happen next
easily predict: China's Navy will come to that area, to destroy and
annihilate those pirates completely. Their land, their towns, their
all.
And so with the Government of Russia. Even now their warships have came to that
area. We know how cruel those Russians have punished their rebels.
I will looking forward for that day.
Because as long as the owners of these hijacked ships still pay the ransom,
these pirates will repeat their crimes again and again.
Now those pirates very lucky with their recent victim Sirius Star tanker of
Saudi Arabia. Because we know that Arab sheiks will happily pay the ransom for
their moslem's brothers in Somalia. $25 MILLION Dollars, you know?
> CNN.com
>
> Pirates' luxury lifestyles on lawless coast
>
> * Story Highlights
> * Pirates able to enjoy lavish lifestyles in lawless Somalia
from ransom payments
> * Stone houses, luxury cars, electricity generators, beautiful
women among spoils
> * Money pouring into region from pirate economy estimated at
$30 million
> * Locals set up businesses to cater to pirates; celebrate when
ships are captured
>
> MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Somalia's increasingly brazen pirates
are building sprawling stone houses, cruising in luxury cars,
marrying beautiful women -- even hiring caterers to prepare Western-
style food for their
hostages.
>
> And in an impoverished country where every public institution has
crumbled, they have become heroes in the steamy coastal dens they
operate from because they are the only real business in town.
>
> "The pirates depend on us, and we benefit from them," said Sahra
Sheik Dahir, a shop owner in Haradhere, the nearest village to where
a hijacked Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying $100 million in crude
was anchored Wednesday.
>
> These boomtowns are all the more shocking in light of Somalia's
violence and poverty: Radical Islamists control most of the
country's south, meting out lashings and stonings for accused
criminals. There has been no effective central government in nearly
20 years, plunging this arid African country into chaos.
>
> Life expectancy is just 46 years; a quarter of children die before
they reach 5.
>
> But in northern coastal towns like
Haradhere, Eyl and Bossaso, the
pirate economy is thriving thanks to the money pouring in from
pirate ransoms that have reached $30 million this year alone.
>
> In Haradhere, residents came out in droves to celebrate as the
looming oil ship came into focus this week off the country's lawless
coast. Businessmen started gathering cigarettes, food and cold glass
bottles of orange soda, setting up small kiosks for the pirates who
come to shore to re-supply almost daily.
>
> Dahir said she is so confident in the pirates, she instituted a
layaway plan just for them.
>
> "They always take things without paying and we put them into the
book of debts," she told The Associated Press in a telephone
interview. "Later, when they get the ransom money, they pay us a
lot."
>
> For Somalis, the simple fact that pirates offer jobs is enough to
gain their esteem, even as hostages languish on
ships for months.
The population makes sure the pirates are well-stocked in qat, a
popular narcotic leaf, and offer support from the ground even as the
international community tries to quash them.
>
> "Regardless of how the money is coming in, legally or illegally, I
can say it has started a life in our town," said Shamso Moalim, a 36-
year-old mother of five in Haradhere.
>
> "Our children are not worrying about food now, and they go to
Islamic schools in the morning and play soccer in the afternoon.
They are happy."
>
> Despite a beefed-up international presence, the pirates continue
to seize ships, moving further out to sea and demanding ever-larger
ransoms. The pirates operate mostly from the semiautonomous Puntland
region, where local lawmakers have been accused of helping the
pirates and taking a cut of the ransoms.
>
> For the most part, however, the regional
officials say they have
no power to stop piracy.
>
> Meanwhile, towns that once were eroded by years of poverty and
chaos are now bustling with restaurants, Land Cruisers and Internet
cafes. Residents also use their gains to buy generators -- allowing
full days of electricity, once an unimaginable luxury in Somalia.
>
> There are no reliable estimates of the number of pirates operating
in Somalia, but they must number in the thousands. And though the
bandits do sometimes get nabbed, piracy is generally considered a
sure bet to a better life.
>
> NATO and the U.S. Navy say they can't be everywhere, and American
officials are urging ships to hire private security. Warships
patrolling off Somalia have succeeded in stopping some pirate
attacks. But military assaults to wrest back a ship are highly risky
and, up to now, uncommon.
>
> The attackers generally treat their hostages
well in anticipation
of a big payday, hiring caterers on shore to cook spaghetti, grilled
fish and roasted meat that will appeal to a Western palate. They
also keep a steady supply of cigarettes and drinks from the shops on
shore.
>
> And when the payday comes, the money sometimes literally falls
from the sky.
>
> Pirates say the ransom arrives in burlap sacks, sometimes dropped
from buzzing helicopters, or in waterproof suitcases loaded onto
tiny skiffs in the roiling, shark-infested sea.
>
> "The oldest man on the ship always takes the responsibility of
collecting the money, because we see it as very risky, and he gets
some extra payment for his service later," Aden Yusuf, a pirate in
Eyl, told AP over VHF radio.
>
> The pirates use money-counting machines -- the same technology
seen at foreign exchange bureaus worldwide -- to ensure the cash is
real. All payments are
done in cash because Somalia, a failed state,
has no functioning banking system.
>
> "Getting this equipment is easy for us, we have business
connections with people in Dubai, Nairobi, Djibouti and other
areas," Yusuf said. "So we send them money and they send us what we
want."
>
> Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed.
